What is the Sunshine in Government Initiative?

SGI is a coalition of media groups promoting policies that help ensure the government is accessible, accountable and open.

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Waiting for Freedom of Information: Agencies improved in 2009

The 29 largest agencies responsible for handling 97 percent of all federal FOIA requests reported more releases, faster responses overall, but longer waits for agencies to resolve disputes. Appeals resulted in more disclosures. Among dozens of smaller agencies we also analyzed, public interest in information about banking and oversight of the financial sector drove up requests to the FDIC and Federal Reserve; neither could keep up.

This analysis by the Sunshine in Government Initiative compares what 29 agencies reported in 2009 and 2008 and shows slow but significant improvements in the way agencies handle implement the country's main open government law and paints a unique portrait of the federal government's responses to FOIA requests.

Get the 2009 FOIA Data

See the analysis. Get the data. Do your own analysis.

See the database xls format or pdf format)

Bridge 'neglect' disclosed only when paper threatens FOIA lawsuit

Nearly half of the bridges owned by Amtrak in the Philadelphia area are rated poor or worse, declares the Philadelphia Inquirer, which based its article on inspection reports that Amtrak would disclose only when the paper drafted a lawsuit under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The FOIA-based reporting spurred Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter to push for more funding for repairs.

ProPublica looks at a typical FOIA dispute

While there are many problems with FOIA today, ProPublica describes a typical FOIA dispute. A FOIA request comes in for a particular document, in this case information about a contract to build a website (recovery.gov) to track federal Recovery Act spending. The agency releases information with significant redactions:

[Image credit: ProPublica]

The requester appeals, thinking some of the information shouldn't be hidden behind the black pen. While this case is still pending, it's an interesting case example of a FOIA dispute. Hopefully the new Office of Government Information Services (website pending) can help resolve some of these problems.